


Home is Wherever I'm With You

by CatKing_Catkin



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Agender Frisk, Bad Parenting, Child Neglect, Crew as Family, Cuddling & Snuggling, Developing Relationship, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Frisk Needs A Hug, Gen, Good Brother Sans, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mental Breakdown, Pacifist Frisk, Parent Sans (Undertale), Parent-Child Relationship, Past Child Abuse, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Protectiveness, Road Trips, Sad Frisk, Sans Has Issues, Sans Remembers Resets, Spoilers - Undertale Pacifist Route, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, Undertale Monsters on the Surface, dunkle sans - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-10-05 21:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10317470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: They hadn’t even been on the surface two weeks when Frisk declared they wanted to take a road trip. They wouldn’t say why. They wouldn’t say where to exactly, either. Just that it was apparently quite far away from Mt. Ebott, and that there would be plenty of interesting sights along the way.“I know the way,” they said, and they sounded confident enough that their friends couldn’t help but believe them."----------Written for doodleimprovement on tumblr as part of the 2016 Undertale Secret Santa. The prompt was: "family feels and Dunkle Sans." When Frisk proposes a road trip to show their new friends the sights on the surface, there's almost not enough room in Papyrus' new car to fit them all. Still, the surface proves to be a very interesting place. especially when you tour it with good friends by your side. And if Frisk has an ulterior motive for this roadtrip, well, it's not like the monsters don't owe the kid a few favors.When that ulterior motive involves a confrontation with the parents Frisk left behind to fall, Sans in particular is surprised to realize just how important this kid has come to be to them all.





	

They hadn’t even been on the surface two weeks when Frisk declared they wanted to take a road trip. They wouldn’t say why. They wouldn’t say where to exactly, either. Just that it was apparently quite far away from Mt. Ebott, and that there would be plenty of interesting sights along the way.

“I know the way,” they said, and they sounded confident enough that their friends couldn’t help but believe them.

Since they hadn’t even been on the surface two weeks, hadn’t even left the town at the base of the mountain, Undyne, Alphys, Sans, and Papyrus were happy to take the child up on their offer. Two weeks had been enough time for Sans to acquire Papyrus quite a nice car, though he wouldn’t say how and even Undyne had given up asking by then.

Toriel and Asgore were already embroiled in politics and practical things, though, making treaties and deals and smoothing things over for other monsters. Frisk and Papyrus both had to team up before Toriel would let them go. Even if Toriel wasn’t really any of their mothers, she and Asgore were still responsible for the monsters up here. Everything they did in these early days would shape the history of two races going forwards. So it was only polite to let her know and ask permission.

Most humans probably still would have found it such a strange sight – the two of them standing before the former Queen of Monsters, hands clasped in front of them, identical pleading gestures on such different faces.

Sans, however, knew that there was no possible way even Toriel could stand up to the two of them like that.

“Oh, very well!” she finally said, massaging her temples and pointedly ignoring Frisk jumping up to return Papyrus’ high-five. “But you must take care! Obey all the traffic laws. And all the other laws, too, I suppose. Make sure to call me every night.” She looked down at Frisk and her expression visibly softened, going from motherly sternness to just motherly. “But I would not mind if you called me more often. And please do take a lot of pictures! I like interesting sights as much as the next monster, after all.”

Frisk nodded solemnly. “I will.”

They looked up at Toriel, and Toriel looked down at them. Sans, as he sat watching this entire exchange from a seat on the hood of Papyrus’ car, could almost feel out the shape of the words not being said. But the truth of the matter still escaped him. None of them could understand why Frisk hadn’t agreed to stay with Toriel when she asked them to.

“I have places to be,” was all they’d said. And though he could tell his oldest friend’s heart broke to hear it, Toriel had accepted that.

So she let go this child that she clearly loved and that so clearly loved her. She was there to wave them off the next morning, as they all piled into Papyrus’ new car. Undyne called shotgun on the front seat. Papyrus was driving. And Frisk was sandwiched safely between Alphys and Sans in the back.

“Good-bye!” Toriel called after them, as Papyrus fumbled with the gear shift. He’d only gotten his license yesterday, after all. “Be careful! I love you!”

Frisk was waving back as hard as their short arms could manage. “I love you, too!” they called back. “And so does Sans!”

They slumped down in their seat, looking decidedly pleased with themselves. Sans slumped as far down in his seat as he could, though not fast enough to avoid hearing Toriel gasp. He felt his skull and his soul flame with heat, followed by a lurching rush of dizzying relief when Toriel called out: “Please tell Sans thank you and likewise!”

He wanted to answer. He knew he wouldn’t have found his voice if he’d tried. So Sans just contented himself with pulling Frisk close to give their hair a good mussing, as Papyrus finally remembered how to pull out of the parking lot.

“NO ROUGHHOUSING IN THE CAR!” he called back to them.

“Sorry, Papyrus,” Frisk answered around their giggling and their halfhearted squirming to escape.

“sorry, bro,” Sans answered, finally letting them go. “you’ve gotta admit the kid started it, though.”

Frisk shrugged and settled back into their seat. They didn’t look at all sorry.

The car did not escape additional roughhousing over the next few days. It was just inevitable, when you had Papyrus and Undyne in an enclosed space together. Sans finally had to take over driving for a while on that first day when their exuberance started getting out of hand.

“Where did you learn to drive a  _car_?” Undyne demanded.

“don’t remember,” Sans said, pulling his seat up so his feet could reach the accelerator. He did, of course, but even if he was finding the energy to drive the energy for explanations was still another matter. Grumbling, Undyne was eventually forced to accept this, and took out her frustrations on another arm-wrestling match with Papyrus. Alphys was the referee while Frisk took the front seat. They were the navigator, after all.

The road was still a winding one. They slept all together in the car whenever night fell or someone needed a rest, curling up on their seats or flopping over on one another. Toriel had, however, given them enough money to eat at any one of the varieties of restaurants they passed along the way. The monster’s introductions to human food were many, varied, and enthusiastic. Sans and Papyrus immediately took to the human interpretation of fast food. Alphys was over the moon when they found a restaurant specializing in noodles. And Undyne, to Frisk’s evident surprise and alarm, declared gas station hot dogs to be the best thing ever.

There were also less necessary but equally exciting sights that Frisk insisted they stop for. Like a maze of tall grass, or a house that had been built upside down, or a field proclaiming that it contained the World’s Largest Ball of Twine. 

“well,” said Sans, staring up and up and  _up_  at it alongside Frisk. Undyne and Papyrus were taking silly pictures of each other nearby, with the help of a strange painting that had a face cut out of it. Alphys, meanwhile, was flipping through some postcards at the tiny gift shop building a few yards away. “i can definitely say i’ve never seen a bigger ball of string. why did someone make a giant ball of string, by the way?”

Frisk shrugged. "Don't know."

"yeah, guess you wouldn't, must be a pretty  _tangled_  tale."

Frisk let out a gratifying groan, facepalming audibly. All around them, people stared. Sans could feel them. Of course, that part had always been unavoidable. Monsters had finally returned to the surface, after so long underground that most humans now considered them little more than a myth. Now here they were, walking around in the company of a human child, sitting at tables in restaurants and admiring giant balls of twine and racing around in corn mazes. Sans suspected that it was this strangeness that was saving them. Most people already probably couldn't believe that they were seeing monsters. They would be even less prepared to believe that they were seeing monsters fighting over french fries or taking goofy pictures of themselves. And even those that could believe it wanted to see what would happen next.

Sans could deal with staring. He just hoped that they were setting a good example so far. He was somewhat out of practice at that sort of thing.

"whelp," he said out loud, turning away and starting off to join Alphys. "my life's been officially changed. i guess it is pretty amazing what you can do with a few hundred pounds of string. you want a keychain, kid?"

Frisk hastened after them. Out of the corner of his eyesocket, he saw their face scrunch up in thought. "Do we have money?" For souvenirs, he knew they meant.

"i don't know about  _you_ , but  _i_ sure do."

"How?"

“that’s for me to know and you to take advantage of. c’mon, kid. you be the one humoring me for a change. tell me where we'll going, and i'll buy you the tackiest keychain they've got.” 

Their steps faltered just a pace. He saw them frown, saw their head fall and their gaze drift to their feet.

"I don't want to talk about it," they finally admitted, quietly.

"well, uh, that's...kind of a problem? since we're going there anyway, and all."

"I know. But it's not anywhere dangerous. I  _promise_  it isn't, Sans!"

Sans stopped walking, and so did Frisk. He turned to face them and, when they didn't look up at him, he ducked his skull to try and catch their eye. They kept right on worrying their lip until he thought it was going to bleed, but eventually looked up at him.

"...you sure about that?"

They hesitated, fidgeted, looked around for a way out. But then they finally answered: "No. That's...why I want you to come with me. I'm scared." They admitted this last in almost a whisper, seemingly shamefaced.

Sans could feel people staring all around them, but most of them probably couldn't hear what Frisk had said. He wondered what this scene looked like to them, then decided that it didn't matter.

"this is really that important?"

"Yeah. To...to me, at least."

 Well, he supposed that was that. Sans straightened up, clapped Frisk companionably on the back and then, on a whim, slung an arm around their shoulder. "guess that's good enough for me. i do kind of owe you anyway, kid."

"S'okay." But he saw them smile before they ducked their head again.

"yeah, it is. and you know what? that's kinda nice. now c'mon. let's go buy you that keychain before we get kicked out."

*  *  *

In the end, the scary place that Frisk still so badly needed to be taken to was a seemingly ordinary house. It was a big, two-story building, even bigger on the outside than Sans and Papyrus' house in Snowdin had been. It sat in the middle of a long road, along with other identical houses and big, leafy trees. Papyrus paid particular attention to the road signs as they drove up to it. It was obvious to all of them that the stares they were receiving around here were less curious and rather more wary and hostile than had been the case up until now.

Sans was once again in the backseat, with Frisk sitting between him and Alphys. They'd grown increasingly quiet and tense as they drew closer to their destination. Papyrus' laughter hadn't been able to get a smile, nor had any of Sans' very worst puns. Whatever was up ahead must have been very terrifying indeed.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alphys reach out slowly and take the child's hand. That did the trick when nothing else had. Frisk lifted their head, smiled at her, and then smiled at all of them as Papyrus parked in front of the house. "We're here," they said, their first words in two hours. 

The monsters and their charge all piled out into the driveway. Sans saw a curtain twitch out of the corner of his eyesocket. He heard a gasp from inside, and something shattering. Raised voices. 

"i take it they're not expecting us, kid?"

Frisk shook their head. "Not ever again."

Every word seemed to be an effort for them, now. because they really did owe Frisk this much, and because Frisk really was their friend, everyone followed them as they walked up the front steps, rang the doorbell, and waited. Two minutes went by, and then they rung it again. Three minutes later, they rang it again, and then leaned on the doorbell so it kept right on ringing. Papyrus went to the window and tried to peer inside. Judging from the way he gasped, he'd caught sight of someone. "HELLO!" his brother cried, waving past the gap in the curtains. "DO YOU MIND IF WE COME IN? ONLY OUR FRIEND THE HUMAN REALLY WANTS TO SEE YOU!"

Sans heard hushed voices. He heard footsteps drawing nearer. He heard the door being unlatched, until finally it opened just a crack and a burly adult male human looked out. He looked at them, looked down at the child, and suddenly it was clear that Papyrus wasn't the most surprising thing he'd seen that day.

"Hi, Dad," said Frisk quietly. "Can we come in?"

Undyne, Alphys, and Papyrus were even more emphatic about expressing their surprise than Frisk's parents had been. Sans, meanwhile, just kept his gaze fixed first on the man's face, then the woman's. Whether because of relief or fear, they were all let inside. Then Sans saw the way the man and woman sat down together on their living room sofa, very obviously not leaving any room for Frisk, and realized that it was probably just fear. 

This left no seats for all of them to sit together, but that was okay. Frisk settled down somewhat awkwardly in the only other available armchair. Sans and Alphys could perch themselves easily enough on each armrest. Undyne leaned against the back of the seat, and Papyrus sat himself down on the floor beside Sans.

There. Sans figured that made them just about even.

"Hi, Mom," said Frisk, once they were all settled, offering a tiny little wave to the woman. She waved back after a moment's hesitation. Her face was pale, and her mouth was a thin, tight line. "I'm back. I didn't mean to be."

"We thought not," said their father warily.

"Where did you go?" asked their mother.

"I climbed the mountain. I went up Mt. Ebott." Sans saw Frisk's knuckles go white where their hands rested in their lap. This time, he moved first to take their hand and squeeze it gently. It seemed to help, at least enough for Frisk to say: "I fell down."

Sans heard their mother gasp as she put a hand over her chest. He heard their father say a word that certainly sounded impolite, from how emphatically he said it. "Not possible. Those who climb the mountain..."

Frisk gave a little hiccup. When Sans looked at them again, he felt a lurching rush of dread to realize that they were crying.

"...don't ever come back," they finished. "And I don't think I did. Or, I mean...I don't think I'm the same person I used to be. When I climbed up. When you made me climb up."

Skeletons didn't need to gasp, but there were some things they shared with humans besides a basic shape. Gasping as a sign of shock certainly was one. Sans gasped, Papyrus gave a little cry of alarm as he looked around at his friend. Alphys' hands flew to her mouth, and as for Undyne...Sans could practically feel the heat and hate of her glare even though she was behind him.

"We  _never..."_ Frisk's mother began.

_"Yes you did!"_

The living room fell silent, but for the sound of Frisk's pained shout dying away. They'd half-risen out of their seat with the force of their emotions, but as Sans watched, they slumped back again and tried to wipe some of the tears from their eyes. "Yeah you did," they repeated in a mumble. "Maybe...m-maybe you didn't do anything. But that was bad, too. You d-didn't do anything to want me, you didn't...you didn't say important things, you didn't even f-feed...!"

They trailed away with a quiet little whimper. Maybe because they felt, as Sans did, that Undyne was going to pounce if they gave her any more reason to. Even Alphys was looking angry. Papyrus, meanwhile, had started to cry right along with Frisk. 

Frisk seemed to draw some strength from the emotions their friends were displaying. They looked around at all four of them. All four of them looked back and smiled, offered a pat on the shoulder or a ruffle to their hair. And Frisk found the strength to go on again.

"But I don't...I don't wanna talk about all of that," they said, looking back at the humans who had once been their parents. "It's done. Doesn't matter. But...you still kept me for a bit. You still... _made_  me. So I thought you might wanna know that I didn't die. So I'm telling you that I didn't. So do you don't have to feel guilty if you thought I did. I'm...I'm gonna be okay now. Even if you couldn't make me that way."

"Hell yeah," Undyne agreed.

" _WE_  WOULD NEVER LET IT BE ANY OTHER WAY,"Papyrus added.

Frisk nodded determinedly, then made to slide down out of their seat. Papyrus hastily moved to make room for them, and accepted their offered hand to get back to his feet. Sans, Undyne, and Alphys stood up along with them. Frisk looked up at the four of them and smiled, and was still smiling when they looked back at the human man and woman. 

"I guess all I wanted to say was...goodbye," they said. "The right way, this time. I didn't last time. Goodbye. You don't have to worry about me. Take care of yourselves."

They waved, either ignoring or oblivious to the fact that Undyne was sticking her tongue out over their head. The woman was crying. Sans didn't know why. It probably didn't matter. She turned away from Frisk and buried her face against her husband's chest. He held her, and stared at Frisk like he'd never seen them before. Maybe he hadn't.

"thanks a bunch for seeing us," Sans said, clapping his hands. "i'd say it was nice chatting. but it, uh, actually kinda sucked. i'm ready to blow this dump. who's with me?"

"I c-certainly am," said Alphys, nodding as firmly as she ever did.

"ABSOLUTELY!" Papyrus agreed.

They all started off for the door in a happy cluster, before Sans suddenly stopped short. Papyrus noticed first, but soon all of them were looking back at him.

He made a show of patting his pockets, before winking at them all. "whoops. must've dropped my keychain in the cushions. be right back, guys. get the car all warm and toasty for me, okay?"

Papyrus let out a huff. "HONESTLY, SANS! WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A LOT MORE THINGS HERE ON THE SURFACE - YOU MUST LEARN TO TAKE BETTER CARE OF THEM!"

"i know. and i will! starting tomorrow."

He thought that they all probably didn't entirely believe him. Frisk stayed staring at him the longest and was the last to turn away and follow Papyrus out to the car. Sans waved at them until they'd all turned their back, before he turned very, very slowly to face the humans on the couch.

 ** _"Before I go..."_**  he said, as the vision in his right eye was slowly tinged with blue.  ** _"I remembered some things_ I _wanted to say to you..."_**

He didn't take too long. He didn't say anything that probably didn't need to be said, by someone not quite as nice as Frisk. Sans just...poured a little more emotion into his voice, as he impressed upon them very definitively what a precious soul they had tossed aside back then. As he told them in no uncertain terms what would happen to them if they caused trouble for Frisk or any other monster going forward from here.

**_"I didn't used to believe in second chances. Frisk helped change my mind. Luckily for the two of you_ ** _."_

They were both well and truly cowering by the time he left. Sans couldn't find it in himself to feel bad about that fact. He was even whistling jauntily as he walked out of the house and closed the door behind him.

"HURRY UP, SANS!" Papyrus called from the driver's seat. 

"sorry, bro." Sans sauntered over to the backseat and floated himself up and over the door, to settle down in the spot Frisk had left for him beside them.

"DID YOU FIND YOUR KEYCHAIN?"

"yep. you know me, i'm just a butterfingerbones."

Grumbling a little at the silliness of his brother, Papyrus pulled out of the parking lot and back out onto the street. He started driving back the way they'd come, and didn't seem to need to ask Frisk for directions this time. Sans folded his arms on the top of the door, rested his skull upon them, and watched the world go by for a little while.

At least until Frisk found their voice again.

"What'd you want to say to them, Sans?"

"you know what? i was all fired up, but now...i don't even remember." Sans knocked theatrically against his skull, pulling a face, before he slung an arm around Frisk's shoulders and pulled them close. "funny how that works, huh? what's say we get you home now, kid."

Frisk reached up to cover his hand with theirs', and when he saw them smile, Sans knew that all was right with the world. "Yeah," they said. "I'd like that."


End file.
